Editing Canadian Confederation (section)

===Results===
[[File:JaMAC.jpg|right|thumb|John A. Macdonald became the first [[Prime Minister of Canada|prime minister of Canada]].]]

Dominion elections were held in August and September, 1867, to elect the first [[Parliament of Canada|Parliament]]. The governments of the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick nominated the seventy-two individuals who would be named to the [[Senate of Canada|Senate]], who were listed in the [[Proclamation of the Constitution Act, 1867|proclamation of Confederation]] (twenty-four each for Quebec and Ontario, twelve each for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia). They were called to the Senate by the governor general for the opening of the first Parliament.<ref name="Chambers's encyclopaedia">{{cite book |title=Chambers's encyclopaedia: a dictionary of universal knowledge for the people |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pv9BAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA225 |year=1887 |publisher=Collier |page=225}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Journals of the Senate of Canada : being the first session of the first Parliament, 1867-8 : 1867/68 |work=Canadiana |url=https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_07154_1/20 |access-date=2025-03-09 |pages=19–53}}</ref>

The Anti-Confederation Party won 18 out of 19 federal Nova Scotia seats in September 1867, and in the Nova Scotia provincial election of 1868, 36 out of 38 seats in the legislature. For seven years, William Annand and Joseph Howe led the ultimately unsuccessful fight to convince British imperial authorities to release Nova Scotia from Confederation. The government was vocally against Confederation, contending it was no more than the annexation of the province to the pre-existing province of Canada.<ref name="FrancisFrancis2009d">{{cite book |first1=R. D. |last1=Francis |first2=Richard |last2=Jones |first3=Donald B. |last3=Smith |title=Journeys: A History of Canada |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GbbZRIOKclsC&pg=PA263 |date=February 2009 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0-17-644244-6 |page=263}}</ref>

Prior to the coming into effect of the ''Constitution Act, 1867'', there had been some concern regarding a potential "legislative vacuum" that would occur over the 15-month period between the prorogation of the Province of Canada's final Parliament in August 1866 and the opening of the now Dominion of Canada's first Parliament in November 1867.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Baker |first1=Ron |last2=Rennie |first2=Morina D |date=February 2013 |title=An institutional perspective on the development of Canada's first public accounts |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1032373212463270 |journal=Accounting History |language=en |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=31–50 |doi=10.1177/1032373212463270 |issn=1032-3732}}</ref> To prevent this, the ''Constitution Act, 1867'', provided for "continuance of existing laws" from the three colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick until new laws could be established in the Dominion.<ref>[http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/page-7.html#h-27 ''Constitution Act, 1867'', s. 129.]</ref> Thus, the "Dominion's financial systems, structures and actors were able to operate under the provisions of the old Province of Canada Acts" following confederation, and many institutions and organizations were continued and assumed "the same responsibilities for the new federal government that it had held as a provincial organization".<ref name="baker">{{Cite journal |last1=Baker |first1=Ron |last2=Rennie |first2=Morina |year=2012 |title=An institutional perspective on the development of Canada's first public accounts |journal=Accounting History |volume=18 |issue=1 |page=37 |doi=10.1177/1032373212463270|s2cid=154697832 }}</ref>